STAR OF THE WEST U.O.A.D. NO. 36.

Grey River Argus, 20 June 1927, Page 4

STAR OF THE WEST U.O.A.D. NO. 36.

jyjEMBERS of the above Lodge are requested to meet at the Lodgeroom TO-DAY (Monday) at 1.30 p.m., in order to follow tho remains of the late Mrs Coen, wife of Brother John Coen, to her last resting place, Grevmoutli Cemetery. By Order of the A.D.

tice at the time being ActingIGovernor. The new rules under this Order provide that where more than £2OO is in issue, a jury must- be applied for (a harmless provision, the object of which is apparently to obscure the real object) ; but that all eases founded on breach of contract’shall be tried by a Judge alone, unless the trial Judge grants a jury on the„apnli--1 cation of either parts. The position thus is that if counsel for an injured man is refused a jury, as he will be, he must then proceed to trial before the very Judge who has just refused him a jury. Now, it cannot be shown by appeal to any- principle of justice that an injured man should be deprived of his rights before the law in suing his employer for damages any more than any citizen in suing another for damages for accidental injury. The Government’s action, therefore, lacks justification entirely, but that is not to say it lacks explanation. The truth is that since the righteous abolition of the plea of a fellow-worker’s negligence as a bar to a worker’s suit, the number of such suits has naturally increased, and one Judge even criticised adversely the number of such actions for damage by injured workers. So the explanation is as obvious as the justification is lacking. There has been more than one illustration of workers’ compensation claims farin'*- at the hands of a Judge in a manner regrettably contrary to that in which they fared at the hands of a jury. This Order-in-Council method of Government is a menace to no class so much as to the workers, and it calls for an effective challenge at the first opportunity.